Miscellaneous

A life without thinking is not a life. But only the crazed can think deeply. The text in the “about” field of new blog discovery – Amygdala Reconnected, a Chinese blog on health science, weight loss and life in general…. Read More ›

A while back now a few of us on LP did some fundraising for Darfur based on a comments challenge – we donated money to Medecins San Frontieres based on the number of comments we received in that thread. One… Read More ›

I find a lot of bumper stickers and badges promoting partisan politics or ideological positions way too shrill for my taste. But I might actually buy this one: Found at Carry A Big Sticker. Might be nice if they also… Read More ›

This is the name of a charity begun by two American widows, Susan Retik and Patricia Quigley: both women were mothers of small children and also heavily pregnant when their husbands died on 9/11, one in each of the planes that hit the Twin Towers.

Many other people lost their loved ones that day, but few have reacted as these women have done. Despite their grief and anger at the terrorists, Patti and Susan are actively engaged in charity work for the people of Afghanistan, the country where most of the hijackers trained before coming to the USA and committing their atrocity.

I heard Susan Retik interviewed on Radio National this morning to mark the 5th anniversary of the disaster. Before 9/11 she barely knew anything of Afghanistan, and her reaction to learning more about the Taliban and their oppression of women was to awaken her compassion in a very personal way based on her own recent tragedy: if life was so bad for women there generally, how much worse must it be for unsupported widows? And what could she do to help them, woman to woman?

Mark Bahnisch of Larvatus Prodeo had a great idea – since one of our commentors there had issued a comments challenge that if met would net the LP collective $1000 for our running costs (and the commenters came to the… Read More ›